Audio Video News

The long-running legal battle over the SED display took yet another turn recently when a federal court upheld Canon's license to manufacture SED TVs based on technology owned by Texas-based Nano Proprietary. However, it takes time to get production lines up and running--and the legal saga may not be over. So Canon's latest victory is unlikely to bring SED to market anytime soon.

Ever heard of the Rhapsody-powered Best Buy Digital Music Store? Neither had I. That's probably why Best Buy is buying Napster.

Picture quality, brand, and price were the three top priorities of TV shoppers surveyed by iSuppli.

The DTV transition took over a whole metro area for the first time this week. Folks in Wilmington, North Carolina are getting digital signals exclusively in a trial run for the overall U.S. DTV transition which is scheduled for February 17, 2009. That's when analog broadcasting will stop entirely, with analog signals surviving only in cable, satellite, and other non-antenna systems. Wilmington is just experiencing the future a few months early.

Full HD, a.k.a. 1080p, is every videophile's highest ideal. That's probably why satellite operators and so many others claim to supply it. But these claims are "irresponsible" and "misleading," says the Blu-ray Disc Association.

The problem with technological progress is that it litters our racks with legacy components and faces us with painful choices: That old VHS machine isn't getting much use. Should I exile it to the closet? But then, what if I want to play something from the tape library? If you're Japanese, you won't have to decide. That's where Panasonic will introduce a hybrid Blu-ray and VHS recorder next month.

EchoStar has signed an agreement with CableLabs to bring Tru2Way to Dish Network satellite subscribers.